Speaking From Experience
by beege
Summary: During a rough spot in her relationship with Keitaro after they have both admitted to their feelings, Naru meets a mysterious woman who has some valuable advice for her.


Speaking From Experience  
  
On a side street not far from Toudai there is a rather nice café. The food is good, the prices reasonable, and on a warm day the proprietor places some chairs and tables on the sidewalk outside his establishment so that his customers can watch the world go by while they eat. One particularly fine spring afternoon a young woman is sitting by herself at one of these tables, sipping her tea and enjoying the fine weather, when she sees something that brings back bad memories. Seeing a teenager getting into an argument with her boyfriend might not seem a particularly traumatic thing to witness, but memory and association can make horrors out of the most mundane events. When, despite his pleas, the girl hits her apparent boyfriend hard enough to send him flying over a row of two storey buildings to land out of sight in the next street, the woman barely keeps herself from fainting in shock. To see history repeating itself like this for another couple is bad enough for her, but to be simultaneously reminded of the worst mistake she ever made is almost more than she can bear.  
  
The girl is coming toward her now and she is struck by the sudden realisation that she has a chance to intervene and perhaps give this girl some much needed advice - advice that she herself had desperately needed at the same age. But like so many of life's lessons she had not even been aware of the things she didn't know until it was too late.  
  
"Excuse me" she says, quelling the nervousness that wells up inside her when she begins to speak. "This may sound a little strange, but I couldn't help noticing the fight you just had with your boyfriend. He is your boyfriend, isn't he?"  
  
The girl nods slightly, apparently too surprised to object to the somewhat personal nature question - just as she had hoped.  
  
"I realise it may be a little rude of me to interfere like this, but I'd quite like to talk to you about that. You see, I used to know a girl who was a lot like you. Perhaps you'd like to hear about her?"  
  
Naru frowned at the strange woman who had just interrupted her train of thought. She opened her mouth to say that yes it was rude for a complete stranger to pry into someone else's private business but something about the older woman sitting before her caused Naru to reconsider. Something in the woman's eyes spoke of melancholy and hard won wisdom. On a level below conscious thought Naru recognised that she should probably listen to whatever the woman had to say. Still not sure why she was doing so, Naru pulled out the chair opposite from the stranger and sat down.  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
Naru winced inwardly as the blunt question left her mouth. She sounded like she was interrogating the woman. Fortunately the strange woman didn't seem to mind, judging by her bemused smile.  
  
"My name is Akane. May I ask yours?"  
  
"Um, Naru. Narusegara Naru, Akane-san."  
  
"Please, just Akane will do, Narusagara-san."  
  
Naru took a moment to look Akane over. Brown eyes. Shoulder length hair so black it seemed to have blue highlights. A fighter's build - and a good fighter at that, Naru realized, able to recognize such things after years of knowing Seta and Motoko. It was then that Naru realized Akane was looking back at her, but in contrast to Naru's curious gaze Akane's expression was oddly knowing. Weird.  
  
"Would you care to order ma'am?"  
  
Naru blinked in surprise as she looked up at the waiter who had materialized near her elbow with a menu. She'd been so caught up in wondering what this Akane woman wanted that she'd forgotten she was at a café. Across from her Akane nodded encouragingly.  
  
"Go ahead and order, Narusegawa-san. It's on me."  
  
"Oh, um, thank you Akane-san. I'll have-"  
  
"Their iced tea is nice" Akane interjected quietly.  
  
"Well, okay. I'll have that."  
  
Naru handed the menu back a little stiffly. She still didn't know what she was supposed to be doing here and the whole situation had her off balance. It wasn't a sensation she liked. She was tempted to just get up and leave, save that Akane had aroused her curiosity. Seeming to sense that Naru was growing frustrated, Akane began to speak.  
  
"As I mentioned, I used to know a girl who was a lot like you. She was engaged to a boy because of an arranged marriage their fathers' came up with. It wasn't something she was very happy about."  
  
"I bet" Naru snorted derisively. "If that had happened to me I'd have told the little pervert where to go!"  
  
"Yes, well, she actually broke a table over his head. But it was more complicated than that. She thought he was rude and arrogant and perverted and annoying-"  
  
"Hmmph. He sounds like a typical male jerk to me" Naru broke in. Akane smiled ruefully.  
  
"Yes, he was that, but he could be kind sometimes too. Every so often he'd do something that made her wonder if she hadn't misunderstood him, until he put his foot in his mouth again and they went back to arguing."  
  
Akane noticed that something she'd said seemed to have struck a chord with Naru. The girl was paying much more attention than she had been a moment ago.  
  
"It didn't help that there were several other girls chasing him as well."  
  
Akane decided not to mention that several of those girls had been fiancées too. While she had a feeling that Naru had seen her fair share of strange relationships Akane doubted the girl would be able to accept that.  
  
"What a pervert!"  
  
Akane laughed at Naru's enraged exclamation.  
  
"Actually, he wasn't a pervert at all. The opposite, if anything."  
  
"What!? He sure sounds like one to me!"  
  
Akane laughed again.  
  
"He was hardly perfect, but he wasn't half as bad as my friend thought he was. There were a lot of things she blamed on him that weren't really his fault."  
  
"Uh-huh." Naru's expression was knowing. "All guys are like that. They do all these stupid things and say it was an accident and-just-when-you- were-starting-to-really-like-him-he-completely-screws-up-and-"  
  
When Naru stopped to get her breath back in the middle of her rant Akane seized the opportunity to interrupt.  
  
"Are you sure it's like that? The young man you were with - your boyfriend I take it?" At Naru's hesitant nod Akane continued. "He seemed nice enough. Why were you fighting?"  
  
"Oh that pervert! I caught him studying with this other girl but since when do people study in small, cosy restaurants over a nice meal! He was seeing her behind my back I just know it! Just a friend! Yeah right." Naru trailed off at that point, her tone having shifted from strident anger to dejection in the space of a few words. It was a change that spoke volumes to Akane.  
  
"What makes you so sure he was cheating on you?"  
  
"Well . . . I'm sure he was!"  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because . . . because . . . why else would he be there!? He's always looking at other girls even though he says he only lov - only likes me but I bet he's lying and secretly sneaking around behind my back the jerk!"  
  
Akane groaned internally. Naru was every bit as bad as she'd been when she was younger. Much as she could sympathize with the girl's insecurity and fear - and even the paranoia it bred - it was not a mindset that promoted healthy relationships with the opposite sex.  
  
"So that's why you hit him?"  
  
"He deserved it!" Naru said forcefully, sounding more than a little defensive.  
  
"Mmmmmm. My friend felt the same way whenever her fiancé upset her. She didn't believe that a guy - any guy - could like her just for herself. She had a crush on someone much older than her who she knew didn't know how she felt. Actually, that was probably the main reason she liked him. Deep down I think she knew that he only saw her as a friend because of her age, so it was safe for her to care about him. After all, you can't be betrayed by someone who doesn't know how you feel." Again, Akane could see a thoughtful, somewhat pensive look on Naru's face as she weighed the older woman's words. Akane suspected Naru had had a similar experience. It was scary just how much the girl was like her in some ways. It definitely gave her the edge in the conversation though.  
  
"But," Akane carefully continued "you can never actually have anything with someone like that either. At least with her fiancé she had a chance at her feelings being returned, no matter how much trouble they had talking about how they really felt. And believe me, they had a lot of trouble with that."  
  
"It sounds like she'd have been better off without him" Naru declared firmly, but there was a sliver of doubt in her voice.  
  
"I don't think she'd agree with you" Akane said softly, her thoughts clearly a million miles away. "In the end, she realised she really did love him. It was too late by then. He'd already left."  
  
"Oh." Naru's voice was subdued.  
  
"But I doubt that'll happen to you and Keitaro" Akane said brightly, deliberately injecting a subtle note of falsity into her tone. Seeing the uncertain expression on Naru's face Akane felt a slight twinge of guilt even as she congratulated herself on her acting abilities.  
  
"Just so long as you take the time to understand what's really going on and don't jump to conclusions I'm sure you'll be very happy together. After all, no guy would stay with a girl if she hit him all the time for no reason, so you must usually treat him pretty well, right?" Akane continued on in the same mock chirpy tone of voice.  
  
"Uh, yeah. I, um, guess you're right" said Naru uncertainly.  
  
In spite of Naru's clear discomfort, Akane was smiling internally. She'd given the girl a lot to think about; there was no doubt about that. Maybe, just maybe, she could stop someone else from making the same mistakes she had. If she could help someone else avoid making the mistakes she had, then maybe all the years she'd known Ranma wouldn't have been completely wasted after all.  
  
"Maybe I should try talking to Keitaro." said Naru hesitantly. "We could . . . figure something out. It might work."  
  
"Well, you're about to find out. Here he comes now."  
  
"Naru? Naru-san? I'm really sorry I was studying with Mutsumi-san but I swear we were just talking. I-"  
  
"It's okay, Keitaro" said Naru with a smile. "I believe you."  
  
The stunned expression on Keitaro's face, followed by a brilliant smile as her words registered (and the warm sensation his smile gave her), left Naru in no doubt that she'd said exactly the right thing. Smiling shyly, she took his hand and led him down the street, aware that Akane's gaze was following them. And she was smiling too.  
  
Author's Notes  
  
Pretty much anyone who's seen more than one episode each of Love Hina and Ranma ½ will have noticed that there are some interesting similarities between Keitaro's and Naru's relationship and Ranma's and Akane's. I had that thought kicking around in the back of my head for a while before I happened to read a Ranma ½ / Love Hina crossover and a 'Ranma and Akane *don't* get together' shortfic on the same day. And then the thought grew into the idea for this story - what might Akane say to Naru about the way Naru relates to Keitaro if she met Naru sometime after losing Ranma? (this fic was also an opportunity to explore such an event from Akane's point of view, when stories with that theme are usually narrated from Ranma's perspective.) And yes, I'm aware that Akane is characterised here as being about a million times more insightful and wiser about relationships than she appears the manga or the anime. I think it's clear from the story that this is an Akane who's learnt a lot from a failed relationship with Ranma and has changed accordingly, not to mention that it's easy for her to understand Naru because she sees so much of herself in Naru.  
  
A Note On Timing  
  
This story could easily take place over a fairly broad period of Love Hina. It does occur after Keitaro confesses to Naru and she eventually reciprocates, since in her conversation with Akane Naru doesn't deny Akane's assumption that she and Keitaro are more or less a couple. It probably isn't too long after that though, since Naru does grow more trusting of Keitaro through volumes 10-15 of the manga (though she never quite breaks the habit of hitting him). For the purposes of this story, Akane's age is what it would be if you assume that the events of the Ranma ½ and Love Hina mangas occurred roughly as they were published. By this timescale Akane would be several years older than Naru. 


End file.
